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The Most Wanted

Overview

The Most Wanted is the story of Arlington Mowbray, a deeply sensitive, intelligent and utterly neglected girl, growing up in South Texas, trying to overcome the cruelty of her heritage and find love however she can. On a dare, 14-year-old Arley writes to a prison inmate and falls under the spell of Dillon LeGrande, a man 12 years older than she and the former lover of her hardened older sister, Odessa. Because of her youth and innocence, when Arley marries Dillon, she is denied the conjugal visit guaranteed under Texas law and finds a public-aid lawyer, Annie Singer — a cynical New Yorker who has moved to Texas because her fiancé is a death-penalty lawyer — to sue the prison system.

Though Annie is successful, the real bond that develops is not between Arley and Dillon, who begins to frighten the teenager after their one night together, during which she conceives a child. Annie finds that her young client has become more to her than any of the women and children she has helped; she becomes a symbol for Annie’s own longing for family. And then, Dillon escapes from prison…